Posts tagged Home Networking
Review: Synology DS411j NAS Server
0Over the last couple of years, networked home storage has been growing in popularity. During that time, more and more technology manufacturers have gotten on board and churned out so called “Home Servers” that blur the line between corporate grade storage and home media management. The problem is that while a lot of these devices from major manufacturers such as Netgear and DLink do a respectable job, the market has fast become bogged down with cheap imports and copies from the Far East that feature slow processors, low amounts of memory and, sometimes, questionable compatibility.
The DS411J is not one of these products, it’s produced by a relatively new company called Synology who, despite their short presence in the industry, are fast cementing their place as a major player in this area of the market. The DS411J enters towards the top of their home and small office range and is essentially a 4-bay home storage and media server.
The list of features is comparable to those other devices already in the market place, but we’ll get to that.
First lets take a look at the device itself in more detail.
Packaging and Contents
Synology do a respectable job of packaging up the DS411J, the unit arrived over-boxed for added protection but I dare say it wasn’t needed, the box itself has a place for everything and, more importantly, everything was in it’s place. The unit was held firmly in the box and well cushioned, it’s hard to imagine receiving one of these that’s been damaged in transit.
Contents of the box were:
- The DS411J unit
- Driver, utility and manual CD
- Paper “Getting Started” guide
- Paper legal notice
- Power Supply brick
- IEC mains power lead
- Network cable
- Variety of fixing screws
It’s hard to think of what else Synology could have included, though the decision to not include much in the form of paper instructions may trouble some users. However, all the documentation is held on the included CD and it took mere seconds to locate the full installation instructions and technical manual on the disk. And even in the event that the disk is lost or damaged, all of the manuals and utilities are also available on the Synology website.
Next Page: First Impressions
How To Centralise Your Digital Media Library
1If, like me, you’re keen to make the switch to digital copies of all of your music, photos and video then you’ll undoubtedly have some questions as to how to go about it.
In this guide I’ll give some quick musings on how to digitize each of these types of media and then talk about how you can store it safely and access it from around the home.
Photos
Chances are that you already have a digital video camera and if so you already have digital copied of all of your photos. if you have “old school” paper photos then the only thing you can really do is scan them into your computer with a document scanner. There’s no two ways about it; this is going to be a pain in the butt, but once it’s done you’ll have immortal copies of all your best bygone memories. When I scanned in all mine it took an entire week of sitting in front of my PC in the evenings and scanning them in, so be prepared for a lot of waiting around if you choose to do this.
If all you have at your disposal is the old 35mm negatives (remember those) then you can buy something like this to get you up and running.
Music
Most peoples music libraries are almost entirely CD based, which is great, because 99% of home PC’s and laptops have a drive capable of reading these disks. What’s more, Windows, Mac and Linux all have built in methods for converting those music CD’s into MP3 tracks which will play on any number of devices. Like the photos, it’s simply a case of sitting down and going through your disks one by one to convert them to MP3′s.
In Windows you can use Windows Media Player, Mac’s have iTunes by default and for Linux you can check out a free program called Banshee which will take care of this for you.
If you have other formats of music, such as tapes or vinyl, then the task is made slightly more difficult (but far from impossible). The problem is that these formats are analogue, so the only way to capture the sound is basically to play it and turn it into an MP3 in real time. Devices such as this USB record deck and this USB tape deck will help by allowing easy connectivity to your PC, but it will still take a long time.
Video
Like CD’s, DVD’s can be transferred to your PC with relative ease. There are applications available for Windows, Mac and Linux to enable you to convert a DVD film to a video file that will play back on your PC or some other device. I’ve written articles about this before so I’ll just link to them here:
For TV shows and movies that are stored on old VHS cassettes; it’s back to the shops for you, you’ll need something like this. Be warned though, VHS picture and sound quality wasn’t that great to begin with, so converting these to video files might not be worth the time, effort and money.
How To Store All This!
Well, first of all, if you’ve just spent a load of your free time converting all of your media you’re not going to want to lose it all, so make sure that you take a backup of everything on a separate hard disk and leave it with a trusted friend or relative. That way, if something happens to your data, your drive, or god forbid; your house, you’ll still have a copy of everything. The best thing to do is invest in a large USB hard disk such as these and then make a copy of everything on to that. Having lost 250GB of data before now, I can tell you it’s no fun having to sit down and transfer it all over again.
There are two main ways to store all of this information. The first is to stick it all on a large hard drive inside an existing PC. The disadvantage of this is that you have to leave that PC on when you want to access the information from another device, which could prove expensive in terms of electricity costs (as well as being quite loud as well in some scenarios).
The other way is to invest in a network hard drive such as the ones available from QNAP and Netgear. Both of these devices will connect to your home broadband router and data can then be shared between multiple devices on your network, such as PC’s, games consoles and other home devices.
With either solution, you’re going to need a method to advertise all of your media to the other devices on your network. Fortunately this has been catered for by something called DLNA, the Digital Living Network Alliance. DLNA allows for the quick transfer (known as “streaming”) of media to devices that are capable of playing it. A lot of home electronics being sold today, such as TV’s, set top boxes and games consoles are DLNA compliant, so will be able to playback most media that is advertised on your home network.
Both of the network drives mentioned previously have built in DLNA server capabilities, which means that they will be able to advertise your media content to compatible devices on the network. And if you have a Windows PC then you can use Windows Media Player to advertise your media collection, as explained here.
Whichever solution you choose, the result should be that you are able to store all of your media in one place and then stream it to any compatible device that’s connected to your home network (including via WiFi). It may surprise you exactly how many home devices are now DLNA compatible. Most “internet ready” TV’s are, as are both the XBOX360 and Playstation 3 games consoles. There are also a whole bunch of set top boxes and media players available that will pick up your DLNA server and stream any of your home media.
Final Thoughts…..
There are a couple of things worth mentioning now, before you begin on the long journey to digitize your media collections.
- Although DLNA is becoming the standard as the method of streaming media, it’s still important to make sure that the devices that you intend to use can read the files that you create. It’s no good converting all of your DVD’s to a certain file type if your home device cannot play that particular file type, so check which file types are supported before you begin. For music, MP3′s are pretty universal and for video you can more or less rely on AVI files as these will playback on almost all devices.
- Make sure that your data is secure and backed up. Converting DVD’s for home use is technically still illegal (in the same way that recording TV onto VHS cassettes always was). No one has ever been prosecuted in the UK, but if you share your video with other people (even if it’s not on purpose) then you stand to be prosecuted for copyright infringement. What’s more, it’s important to maintain an up to date backup of all of your data so either keep a second copy on another hard disk or utilise the RAID capabilities of either of the above network drives to make sure that there is a second copy of your data.
Tablet Troubles: How To Find The Perfect Tablet PC For You
0The UK consumer market is being absolutely flooded at the moment with as many different models of tablet PC as you can shake a stick at.
It seems that every major high street retailer is fixated on flogging you a device that they guarantee will change your life for the better.
The truth is that a tablet PC is far from a necessity, people got by for thousands of years without them, and not owning one isn’t suddenly going to leave you in the dark ages. That being said, they’re fun to use and can help you in any number of ways whether it’s work, rest or play that you’re interested in. Here are my top tips for buying a tablet PC:
1) Consider Size
The apple iPad has a 10″ screen, which is great for consuming media and browsing the web. But it does make the device a bit large and heavy to carry around everywhere. Most Android tablets come in 7″ versions, which are surprisingly smaller and lighter than the iPad, while still managing to offer much the same in terms of functionality. There are even some devices that are even smaller, around 5 inches, but I wouldn’t really call those devices tablets.
Have a think about what it is that you want the device for, then make a decision on which size would be best for you.
2) iPad or Android
People have polarising views when it comes to Apple, many people will buy a device purely on the strength of it being made by the company, others find the idea of owning an Apple product ridiculous and will buy anything before they visited an Apple store. The truth is that both platforms work well. Apple’s iPad is largely tied down to media formats that Apple supports, meaning that you can’t simply drop your video files onto it and expect them to play, but if you already have an established media collection in Apple formats (say for an iPhone) then this isn’t too much of a problem. Both platforms also have an immense catalogue of applications, and though some need to be purchased, there are a lot that will increase the functionality of your device for free.
In the end, there is no right or wrong answer, some will prefer the openness of Android, while others will enjoy the fluidic and well presented allure of iOS. What’s important is to try both platforms before you buy, so head to your nearest shopping center and try both versions before you buy.
3) Storage space.
Depending on what you want the device for, you may need more or less space than some of the tablets on sale currently offer. The iPad has a fixed amount of storage; either 16GB, 32GB or 64GB, and it cannot be upgraded, so making sure you know your needs is imperative. As an iPad owner I never thought I would need more than 16GB at a time but, after buying a few games and watching a few TV shows, I’m now constantly swapping apps and media files on the device as it’s full. With other tablets this may not be too much of a problem, many will support external storage, either on Micro-SD memory cards or via USB memory sticks. That’s not to say that storage space isn’t important on these devices; you don’t want to rely on multiple memory cards if you can help it.
4) Capacitive or Resistive.
There are two main types of touchscreen technology available on tablet PC’s. The older type, resistive, are a lot less sensitive and usually require a stylus to function properly. The advantage of this is that’s it’s a lot easier to be accurate about which part of the screen you’re pressing. The disadvantage is that it can be a nightmare for casual use and requires that you carry a stylus around everywhere (which you’ll inevitably lose).
The more recent type of touchscreen, capacitive, is a lot better suited to devices such as tablet PC’s as their responsiveness is a lot better, meaning that you can simply use your fingertips to control and interact with the device.
Capacitive screens are more expensive to produce however, so expect devices with these screens to be more expensive.
5) Processor Speeds
When it comes to Android tablets there’s a variety of different processor speeds on the market. The faster the processor then the quicker and more responsive the device will be. There a lot of devices entering the market at the lower end which have surprisingly slow processors and these are best avoided, after all; what’s the point in a device designed to make your life easier that has you sitting around waiting to open any applications? The higher end Android tablets have processor speeds of around 1GHz, but there are some out there with speeds as low as 300MHz, and these are just best avoided.
6) Camera
One big drawback of the iPad is the absence of a camera. Many people see a tablet device as a way to communicate with friends and family, and what better way to do that than with a video call? A lot of other manufacturers have learnt from Apple’s mistake and an increasing number of devices are hitting the shops with built in web cameras. It’s rumoured that the iPad 2 will be announced sometime in January and will feature a camera, so if you’re interested in video calling it may be worth waiting a few weeks before splashing out on yourself.
7) Subsidised Tablets
A few tablet devices are available with 3G connectivity as well as WiFi, and subsequently a lot of mobile networks are offering cut price devices on the agreement that you take out a two year contract with them. The problem with this is the same as with mobile phone contracts; yes, the device is cheap, but you’re going to pay for it over the next two years. It’s often not as good a deal as it seems, but if you don’t have the cash up front and can afford the monthly usage charges then it may be one option for you. Personally, I would avoid this though and instead purchase the device up front in favour of a lower monthly charge.
Conclusions.
Hopefully these insights will give you a steer towards the tablet PC that’s right for you. There are no right or wrong answers, there will be those looking for the best and brightest and those who are on a very tight budget. The good news is that there is a tablet PC for every price point along the way.
More importantly, you need to ask yourself whether or not you really need a device such as this. In a world of laptops, netbooks and smartphones, can you personally justify another platform?
Building an HD Media Center – For Less Than £200!!! – Part Three
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In Part one of this guide I took you through the considerations for hardware, and then in part two I demonstrated the process for installing software. Now, in part three, I’m going to show you the finished machine and demonstrate it’s capabilities as a media hub at home:
Review: Huawei E585 MiFi Wireless Router on “3″
2I recently reviewed the Novatel 2352 wireless router and found it to be quite a nifty device for those that need internet access on-the-go. The device I reviewed was loaned to me by a colleague as I wanted to investigate the potential for these devices not just in general, but for myself specifically.
After a little bit of deliberation I finally took the plunge today and visited my local “3″ shop and walked out with their equivalent device, the Huawei E585 MiFi Wireless Router.
Now, for those unfamiliar with these types of devices, they’re essentially a mobile phone and wireless router combined. They access the internet by using the mobile 3G network, and they connect to your computing devices using WiFi. So, you can turn on this little box anywhere that there’s mobile phone coverage and have internet access on any device that has WiFi (mobile phones, iPad’s, handheld consoles, laptops, etc.)
The E585 is available in the UK on the “3″ network, on either pay as you go or contract (more about this later), to start with lets take a look at the device and what’s in the box.
Here you can see the paperwork that comes, relating to the device itself and the “3″ network. You get a quick start guide, some quick reference cards, some details about 3 and a rather useful business card with your WiFi credentials on it:
You also get a mains charger and two Micro-USB leads (different lengths) for charging the device and connecting it to a PC or laptop:
Useful in themselves, but lets take a look at the star of the show, here we have the device from the front:
From the front it looks rather un-assuming, it’s a nice matt plastic finish with a large perspex panel for the display. The plastic is neither such a high quality that you worry about damage, nor so cheap that you want to hide it away, in essence; it’s just right. It’s a good look to go with, and it’s physically smaller than some of the other models I’ve seen (such as the Novatel). The logo on the front makes sure that you don’t forget what network you’re on, but this shouldn’t bother most users.
The rear of the device has a different feel to it, it’s silver for a start, and the plastic feels a little rougher on the front, though still of a decent quality. To one side of the device you have the solitary power button, which is the only control on the device itself (all other options are accessed through a web interface). On the other side is a MicroSD memory card slot which allows you to insert upto 32GB of storage into the device to share between users.
Now I’ve taken you through the basic layout of the device, lets talk about the functionality. Once turned on it takes around a minute for it to boot up, establish it’s wireless network and then find and connect to 3′s mobile broadband service. The display gives a lot more information than the Novatel I reviewed did, as you can see below you get indications of battery life, WiFi connectivity, 3G network and signal strength, data transfer and connection time. The latter two are very welcome seeing as most users will want to keep an eye on how much data they’re using given the cost of running these devices.
Once turned on, every device in my home (a Mac, a PC, a PS3, an iPad, an iPhone and a laptop) managed to connect to the WiFi network and browse the internet. Speeds were generally good for general web browsing, although it becomes obvious that your bandwidth is significantly lower than a home broadband connection when you come to things like streaming media, which took forever to buffer. However, you could argue that YouTube is not the primary focus of mobile broadband, it’s far more about web browsing and Email access on the go.
Like the Novatel, the E585 can be accessed via a web browser for configuration, you just need to point your browser to the address shown in the instructions and your presented with the information screen for your device:
This screen gives you all the information present on the front of the device, and allows you to send and receive text messages direct to the device. It also offers a portal to your online account with 3 which allows you to see your usage habits in better detail. If you login to the device, you get further configuration options as shown below:
This gives you a lot more options for configuration of the WiFi network and for the on-board storage, very similar indeed to the options provided by the Novatel product. What the Huawei doesn’t have is a separate configuration application though (which the Novatel does) which means that all of your configuration has to be done through your web browser, which is a shame if you want to use the device to send and receive large numbers of text messages.
You can also connect the MiFi to your computer directly using the supplied USB cables, doing so allows you to utilize the 3G network access directly (as apposed to over WiFi) which is great if you only want to use the device on one computer and want the fastest possible speeds.
Speaking of speeds, the Huawei is capable of the theoretical maximum for mobile broadband devices: 7.2Mbps. In tests I was able to achieve speeds of around 4.5Mbps, which is not bad in practice, and certainly enough for day to day web browsing and light media use. Your connection speed will obviously depend on a number of factors such as signal strength and your choice of network, but 4.5Mbps isn’t bad at all given the stressed nature of the UK’s mobile network (it’s certainly quicker than I get on my mobile).
With regard to costs, the unit itself will cost you between zero and £80 to buy (depending on your tariff), it’s available on both pay as you go and contract tariffs with different download limits to suit your needs. For those who know they want it, but aren’t sure for how long; the best deal is the 1 month rolling contract at £15 per month, which provides you with 5GB of downloads per month. If you go with this deal then the device itself will set you back £39.99. You can get it for free, but you need to tie into a 24 month contract, which is a big commitment for what is still a non-essential device for many.
A word to the wise if you choose to buy it on pay as you go: a 3GB top up will cost you £15, and will expire if not used within 30 days, so you may as well go for the £15 per month contract, as I did.
All in all, this is a excellent device, definitely comparable to the Novatel in terms of performance. It also has the added advantage (or hindrance) of being tied to 3′s network, which may be an inconvenience but also means that the device is heavily subsidized and therefore a lot cheaper than the Novatel. Out of the two, I’d go for the Huawei every time.
Building an HD Media Center – For Less Than £200!!!
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With digital media beginning to take hold in the home, it’s important to consider the best ways to access that media. Many people now have dedicated media PC’s, either connected to a traditional monitor or to a big screen TV. The problem has always been that it’s inconvenient to have an ugly grey box sat in amongst your other home entertainment devices. As well as this, “normal” PC’s are loud, power hungry and take up an awful lot of space, hardly useful features when the main aim of the device is to let you access your media in your living room.
The solution is to create a PC that is small, quiet, draws as little power as possible and is yet affordable and can access all of your home media and display it on your TV or monitor. With a bit of careful planning this is entirely possible and in this walkthrough I’ll be demonstrating how you can achieve it for less than £200.
Hardware
There are some important choices to make when it comes to the hardware you need. You could go all out and spend hundreds of pounds on powerful processors and graphics cards, but for media playback only this isn’t required, you only need to spend that much money if you’re looking at using your PC for gaming, and that isn’t what we’re interested in here.
Motherboard
By far the best choice of motherboard at the moment is a board which features the Intel Atom line of processors and, if you want to playback HD quality video, the Nvidia Ion graphics chip. You can pick these boards up for around £120, or even less if you don’t need HD playback. Most of these boards will be in a form factor known as Mini-ITX which means that the entire motherboard will be 17cm x 17cm or less. This is a lot smaller than a traditional motherboards, which allows us to fit our components into a much smaller case.
Atom processors also draw a lot less power than traditional desktop processors, in fact an Intel Atom/Nvidia Ion motherboard shouldn’t draw any more than 30W of power. A lot of them also have a simple heatsink cooling the processor which means there are no noisy fans in your machine getting in the way of your music or videos.
Most of these motherboards come with connections aimed solely at home media use, the one I’m using has an HDMI port as well as optical and coaxial audio outputs so it could easily be connected to a surround sound speaker set up for high definition 5.1 audio.
Memory
Most Atom/Ion motherboards will use DDR2 memory, which is relatively cheap. You would be able to get by with 1GB, but for the minimal additional cost it’s worth shelling out for 2GB. It’s important to realise that the Nvidia Ion chip will also use this memory, up to 256MB of it, so 1GB would leave you with only 768MB for your operating system and applications to use.
Case
There are a growing number of bespoke Mini-ITX sized cases which make maximum use of the size of the motherboard to create a small, discrete solution which wouldn’t look out of place in the living room. It’s important to check if your chosen case comes with a power supply (most do) as it can be almost impossible to find a compatible power supply if they don’t.
When choosing your case you’ll need to consider which hard disks and optical drives you’ve chosen, as you’ll need to make sure that it has enough space to house all of your components. Places like www.ebuyer.com and www.mini-itx.com are good places to shop for cases, just remember that this PC is going to sit alongside your TV so make sure that you choose based upon aesthetics as well as compatibility.
Hard Disk
If you really want to create a silent, low power PC then the only thing to do is buy a Solid State Disk (SSD). These have no moving parts so are completely silent and draw a lot less power than a traditional hard disk. The only problem with them is the cost; they are ridiculously expensive when compared to traditional drives; a 32GB one has set me back £50 in this case. A traditional hard disk of the same price would carry probably 750GB of data.
What this means is that if you plan to store your data on this PC then you’re going to have to live with the additional power requirements and noise. But if you have all of your videos and music stored elsewhere (on another computer or on a network drive for instance) then 32GB is plenty for the operating system and programs so it may well be the best option.
Optical Drives
If you’re building a media PC then the chances are that you already have all your media saved on a hard disk somewhere, in which case you may not need an optical drive at all. In the software section I’ll show how you can install all of the software you need using a USB pen drive. If, however, you feel that you may need to read or write optical disks then you can pick up “laptop” style drives quite cheaply from the same stockists mentioned above.
Most cases will allow you to mount a slimline optical drive so it’s not necessarily a problem if you want one, but it will add to the cost, size and power requirements of your PC so give some thought as to whether or not you actually need one.
In the PC I’m building I have no need for an optical drive as all my media is stored on a networked hard disk, so I haven’t included one.
Assembly
Once you’ve purchased all of your hardware it shouldn’t be too difficult to assemble it (if you’ve built a PC before). In essence, the same standards and form factors are employed for Mini-ITX based systems as normal ones, things are just a little smaller. In the video below I’ve demonstrated the assembly of the parts into a working PC, ready to have it’s software installed.
At this point we have a fully assembled PC which meets the criteria we set out at the beginning: It’s small, draws a relatively small amount of power and it cost less than £200. The next step is to install software on this machine that will allow us to playback our media libraries as well as access online media from the likes of Youtube, BBC iPlayer and other online TV and radio services.
Review: Pure Siesta Flow Alarm Clock Radio
1The Siesta Flow from Pure is a very nifty little device, on the face of it it looks like a simple alarm clock, but delve into the menu’s and it becomes obvious that it’s capable of so much more.
It handles FM Radio, DAB Radio, Internet Radio, and plays media from your home network, USB stick, or any audio source connected via the mini-jack. Oh, and it gets you out of bed in the morning. Check out the video run through of it’s features here…..
The sound quality from the built in stereo speakers is…… adequate, it’s nothing special but I must say I was impressed when I first turned it on and played an MP3 from my media library. In terms of usability, when you first turn it on you’re asked to select your Wi-Fi network and it will then go online and check for any software updates available for it. Mine downloaded version 1.5 of the software and installed it with no interaction from me, which was good. How often Pure will send out updates is unsure, but it’s good to know that development of the software has continued after the product has made it to shelves.
Once it was set up I initially found the Siesta a little tricky to use, the combination of touchscreen controls and traditional buttons was a little perplexing at first, and inputting search terms one letter at a time was extremely frustrating. However, then it occurred to me: The interface isn’t designed for you to be constantly inputting search terms etc., it’s designed for you to conduct an initial setup, bookmark your favourite radio stations and songs and then play them from the favourites and presets options on the menu, so once setup day to day use should prove painless.
The radio reception on both FM and DAB was good in my area using the included wire antenna. It’s questionable that Pure haven’t included a means of connecting your own antenna for areas with low signal strength, but seeing as I haven’t had any issues, perhaps it’s not as big a problem as I anticipate. When streaming media over the Wifi connection from both my home media library and Internet radio there was no noticeable performance issues, MP3′s come through crisp and clear, and the Internet equivalents of some radio stations actually sound better than their DAB versions.
The alarm functionality is very user friendly and also adaptable, you can select a time (obviously) but also choose whether this is a one off alarm, or to be set off every day or every weekday. You can also choose how the device reacts to these alarms, you can choose to play from any of the radio sources or choose a tone from a built in library if you’re a particularly heavy sleeper. It’s a shame that you cannot wake up to music held on your computer or music server, though I can kind of see the logic to this: What were to happen, for instance, if you’d selected to wake up to a particular file, and then that file were to be moved? In short, it’s a lot simpler to tune to a radio station and play whatever comes across than it is to try and search for a specific file on your home network. Perhaps Pure will add support for this in a future update, but in the meantime it’s a small blemish on what is otherwise a very fine product.
Similar home media streamers will set you back over £100, and that’s without the inclusion of DAB and FM radio into the mix. Sure, the interface on the Siesta has a simple LCD screen, but for casual music listening does that really matter? What’s ten times more important is the sound quality and availability of sources, and in both of these areas the Pure Siesta Flow scores top marks.
I would have liked to have seen a bit more care taken in terms of the design and physical features of the unit, the plastic does feel a little cheap in places and the screen may prove too bright at night for some users. But these are small issues that can be accepted purely by virtue of the low price tag that this product offers.
The Pure Siesta Flow is available now at around £65.
Novatel Wireless 2352 Mobile Hotspot Review
8Over the past couple of years most of the mobile providers in the UK have been peddling USB mobile broadband packages to customers who wished to have access to the internet from a laptop on the go. This approach uses the 3G mobile networks to send and receive data on your laptop allowing you to web browse and send/receive Email on the move. Performance is not as good as traditional home broadband connections, but the freedom to access the internet wherever you have a mobile phone signal is sometimes a worthy trade off.
Where the Novatel 2352 fits in is that it offers the same kind of service (using the mobile phone network) but incorperates a wireless router into the package allowing for simultaneous connection of up to 5 devices. This is ideal for homes where ADSL broadband is not available, or where small groups of people need to work collaberatively in a variety of locations.
Opening up the box, it’s a surprise how small the device is, in the picture below it’s sat next to an iPhone 3G, which shows that the 2352 is a device that can be easily transported from location to location.
Included in the packaging is the device itself, an AC charger unit with UK and EU adapters, a USB lead for connecting to a PC, the rechargeable battery and a quick start guide. The design of the device and the packaging eludes to an attempt at the higher end of the market, but initially it seems that Novatel have missed the mark: Although the device looks very well put together at first glance, once you pick it up you realise that the quality of the casing could be better (especially when you consider this is a device that will need to stand up to frequent travel). The thinness of the plastic means that the panels can be compressed, whereas the piano black finish is likely to be a finger print magnet. However, the device is very light, even with the supplied battery installed.
The getting started guide provides clear, concise instructions on how to set up the internet and wireless connections. Simply installing an
active SIM card and turning on the device is enough to bring the device to life, with the default wireless network name and security key being printed on the inside of the battery cover. We had this unit up and running within 2-3 minutes, once the “WiFi” logo lit up we were able to see the wireless network from all of our test devices (a Windows laptop, an iPad, a Mac and a Playstation 3) and all devices were able to connect to the wireless network and were assigned an IP address by the built in router. Once connected, further configuration of the device can be achieved by accessing a configuration page from a web browser (as with most wireless routers), the screen shots shown here show the initial screen displayed and then the screen shown once the administrator password is put into the field in the top right of the screen.
In both screens the signal strength and mobile internet connection type are shown (in this case the slower GPRS standard). These will change dynamically depending on the mobile signal strength in your location. Most built up areas will allow for a “3G” mobile broadband connection which will allow for a theoretical 7.2Mbps download speed, however in reality these speeds are unlikely to be reached due to the restrictions on bandwidth on the UK’s mobile network.
That being said, it’s surprising just how usable the internet connection is, even on a GPRS signal. We were able to browse relatively quickly to a variety of news and social networking sites. High bandwidth websites such as Youtube were a problem however, with videos taking a considerable time to load and playback being choppy at best. This shouldn’t be a problem though as the cost of mobile broadband is prohibitively expensive and this device is only really intended for mobile communication and general web browsing.
Another nice feature of the router is the inclusion of a Micro SDHC slot on the device itself, this allows you to insert a memory card up to 16GB for collaborative storage between all connected devices. This could prove very useful in mobile office environments where more than one user may require access to a set of files, 16GB may not seem like a lot in terms of home storage, but in an office environment it should prove to be more than adequate for document storage.
As mentioned previously, the 2352 includes a rechargeable lithium-ion battery which the manufacturer claims will keep the router powered and active for 3 to 4 hours. In our tests we managed nearly 3 hours of connectivity before we needed to plug the router into the mains charger, but the test environment was in a very low signal strength area so it seems reasonable that battery life would be shortened given the extra power needed to pick up a mobile signal. This cements it’s position as a device for mobile working, it offers true freedom from wires while maintaining access to the internet.
The wireless configuration pages indicate that the router can also be used with Virtual Private Networks (VPN’s) allowing for seamless connectivity to private office networks from remote locations. The wireless router also has a number of security settings, including MAC address filtering which would allow for access only by pre-approved devices, this is another useful feature for mobile office workers who need to protect access to the router and any files stored on an attached memory card.
All in all, the Novatel 2352 Mobile Hotspot is an excellent solution for individuals or small groups of people who need access to the internet at all times. Providing you have a mobile phone signal you will always have some form of internet connectivity, though at times it may be slow. The device can also be used in conjunction with devices that have built in Wi-Fi access but no mobile broadband connectivity (such as the cheaper Apple iPads), the size of the device means that you could switch it on and slip it in your pocket and maintain internet access for three hours or so without any need for configuration.